Jennifer Love Hewitt: No 'Ifs, Ands' About Her Butt

Tuesday December 4, 2007

I'm going on a beach vacation in about two weeks, and I'm just grateful that nobody's going to sneak around with a camera pointed at my rear, take pictures, and sell them to the tabloids. It's great to be a nobody.

Too bad 28-year-old actress Jennifer Love Hewitt doesn't enjoy the same basic right to privacy that I do. During a break from taping her hit series The Ghost Whisperer, she tried to take a carefree vacation with her fiancé.

But there's no time off for TV/film celebrities, is there?

Don't say that's the price of celebrity, because no woman deserves to be mocked and humiliated the way that she's been, all because of a few pictures of her bikini-clad bottom.

She was at least smart enough to stand up to her snarky critics. In her official blog, she wrote:

This is the last time I will address this subject.
I've sat by in silence for a long time now about the way women's bodies are constantly scrutinized. To set the record straight, I'm not upset for me, but for all of the girls out there that are struggling with their body image.
A size 2 is not fat! Nor will it ever be. And being a size 0 doesn't make you beautiful.
What I should be doing is celebrating some of the best days of my life and my engagement to the man of my dreams, instead of having to deal with photographers taking invasive pictures from bad angles. I know what I look like, and so do my friends and family. And like all women out there should, I love my body.
To all girls with butts, boobs, hips and a waist, put on a bikini – put it on and stay strong.

"Like all women out there should, I love my body." Ah, but we don't, do we?

Google 'what women hate about their bodies' and you'll find thousands of pages. But type in 'what women love about their bodies' and you'll find very, very little out there. We don't love our bodies, but the tide may be slowly turning.

Hewitt is drawing a line in the sand in her own small way with her bikini photos and her comment, "put on a bikini - put it on and stay strong."

For my teenage daughters' sakes, I hope other women and girls listen - and follow suit.